Louder Than a Bomb Poetry Slam

In 2013, Elocutionists will be hosting its first spoken word competition, dubbed 'Louder Than a Bomb' (named after the Chicago Poetry Slam of the same name). The competition will consist of writers either having their work performed to their specifications by readers or representing themselves in the competition with their own recordings. There may also be the possibility of two categories to enter: a category for individual slam poets and another for groups. If you are not aware of what a poetry slam is, here is a quick definition and rundown of some basic, universal rules:

A poetry slam is a competitive event in which poets perform their work and are judged by members of the audience. Everyone who signs up has the opportunity to read in the first round; the lineup for subsequent rounds is determined by the judges' scores. Though rules vary from slam to slam, the basic rules are:

Each poem must be of the poet's own construction or the result of a collaboration of two or more poets. Each poet gets three minutes (plus a ten-second grace period) to read one poem. If the poet goes over time, points will be deducted from the total score. The poet may not use props, costumes or musical instruments; Of the scores the poet received from five selected judges (0-10), the high and low scores are dropped and the middle three are added together.

We will, of course, be modifying these rules as needed so as to make a more enjoyable experience for everyone. To make this competition a reality though, we need your support!

How can I help?

There are a lot of ways to help! You can:

Suggest ways for us to modify the contest for deviantART Donate points to Nichrysalis or disrhythmic Join Elocutionists and find out what we're all about Submit work to our favorites folder to be read by our readers Offer to help organize and run the contest Tell us if you would like to be a judge or if you think the entire audience should judge Let us know if you would like to participate, either by recording yourself, or having someone read your work for you!

yeah, it sounds really cool Nic. I've been meaning to get involved in this group for awhile now. btw - i had left a question last night on the group profile - i have a couple of questions about how to enter the contest. If I make a recording, do I just place the link on the piece and submit it to the Read by Members folder? Are the rules to enter the contest different?

Perhaps we could have a follow-up thing? As in, a writing contest first, maybe based on "sound" or "music" or something related, after which we have the winners of THAT, and then a slam contest, where each participant reads out each poem per round? (Does that make sense? As in, writing contest > say 3 winners > slam poetry contest > round 1, 3rd piece, everyone reads > round 2, 2nd piece, everyone reads > round 3, 1st piece, everyone reads. And then then the audience decides which was best for each round + overall winner? .. or something like that, I don't know?)

I'd definitely support it. Dunno if I'd have the means for prizes, or if I'd participate, but supporting, yeah.

We would of course have to have the written work submitted to deviantART. But you can upload audio files to sta.sh and play them in your browser if you have an updated player, such as Quicktime, Flash(player?), Realplayer, or VLC, all of which are free. I think the default is Flash, but if you have a Windows or Linux system I'd recommend VLC and if you have an Apple computer I'd suggest Quicktime. Though I'm totally off-topic. My point is, the written work would still be seen by the literature community at large, and more importantly, would also be heard at the same time. I'm not sure that if we did them at separate times we would get as much attention for the spoken word portion of the competition, which is what we're trying to highlight, because it's our group focus.

Hmm, like I said in my previous reply, I'm not sure that will help the spoken works get more exposure. And having audience participation would be a huge boost for the group and for those who didn't participate in the event to get engaged on another level.

Just replying to this instead (I read the other replies) - ah, that does make more sense, I hear you on that, I didn't realise there was a group for it that focused solely on audio! (That's what I get for skimming articles - my bad, sorry!). Cheers!

I think the unique power of slam poetry is in its performance aspect, meaning auditory AND visual. You lose a lot with just an audio recording; is it realistic to mandate or strongly encourage video submissions?

Have a few separate categories. I like your group slam and your individual slam but open it up to other artists like actors or voice actors to volunteer or submit reels to participate and read for writers.

I think it should be an audience judge and then have judges narrow it down to your winners.

(my newer laptop is having issues and I'm still living w/o a mic - old one doesn't have a mic.... - so I'm not sure when I'll be able to do readings for these - but I'll try to blog this in the other groups I admin!)